


Green Lights

by kangamangus



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Jealousy, M/M, Robots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-12
Updated: 2012-05-12
Packaged: 2017-11-05 06:13:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/403282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kangamangus/pseuds/kangamangus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jane longs to make Jake hers, so she challenges Dirk to a robot battle. Featuring DirkJake, Jane, and Roxy. </p>
<p>Based on The Great Gatsby.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Green Lights

**Author's Note:**

> Gatsbystuck ficlet written for a friend for Promstuck.

Somehow, it had worked for Dirk. The combination of robots and self-confidence, neither of which Jane had at the time, had somehow cued-in on some sympathetic feelings within Jake. Jake, who now walked arm-in-arm with Dirk, who smiled at his jokes and looked at him with something akin to affection. Dirk had won, had managed to wiggle his way into Jake’s heart so fully that Jake couldn’t even see right, anymore. When he looked at Jane, it was as though all potential had been burned away. No longer could Jane feel as though kindling some sort for kinetic reaction were feasible. She inched closer and closer to giving up, to resigning herself to the fact that she would never be able to get Jake to look at her as more than a friend, as more than a buddy with whom he could chat from time to time. I could see it in her face, hear it in her voice - she was going to pull out of the race.

Dirk may have been the only guy in my time period for a really long time, but I couldn’t help but root for Jane. She was my best friend. I encouraged her, because I believed she might still stand a chance, that maybe Jake’s affection for Dirk stemmed more from giving into an inevitability than actual feelings. I told her to come up with a plan, to do something to finally - finally - take some action. It took a while, but she finally decided to give it a shot.

She came home with a robot.

This robot was no regular robot. Jane had money to spend, and boy, did she spend it. It was the most amazing robot I had ever seen - the best technology, complete with lasers and guns, a machine equipped to battle to the death. Jane didn’t have the same ability as Dirk - she couldn’t program the robot to her own customization, but that hardly seemed necessary. It was already at the top of its game, tall and menacing, and of course, free of any sunglasses. Its eyes were green and when it moved, it did so without the metallic clanging of a machine made from piecemeal parts. It was functioned smoothly, without any hiccups.

Jane challenged Dirk.

Dirk’s a smart guy, so of course he understood. Even as Jane made it out to be a friendly gathering - the four of us, together to watch a robot duel, _think of the fun!_ \- Dirk looked at me in a way that I know indicated that he got the gist of what was going on. This was no simple fight. This was about Jake.

Jane gave him a week to work on his robot. Jake told me Dirk spent all week shut up in his workroom, completely focused. He needed to be reminded to eat and sleep.

Meanwhile, Jane had nothing on which she could work. She was idle. Instead of tinkering, she took to watching her robot, staring into its eyes, those two green lights - two little minute beacons that stared from across the room, seemingly faraway, even when the robot was just across the room. There was something about those eyes that I didn’t like - but Jane liked to stare at him. She did it a lot.

When the day finally came, we all showed up at the chosen location - a park that Jane had rented out for the day. Never before had she been so showy with her money, but she was all-in, now. Ready to do whatever it took to get Jake to finally look at her. Her robot stood in the center of a field, prepared for the fight ahead. Jake showed up looking happy - clearly ignorant of what was at stake. Dirk was the last to show. I wondered if his eyes were deeply circled behind his shades, if he bore the marks of someone who hadn’t slept in a week. His Brobot looked the same as ever, but I knew that there was more than met the eye. I knew, watching as Dirk gave his Brobot a command, that he wasn’t going to lose.

The fight was quick, but painful. I watched as the Brobot tore Jane’s robot into pieces. Every dollar invested in the robot was pulled away, shredded, destroyed. Money could buy the best technology around, but it couldn’t account for Dirk’s genius, and in the end, her robot was grounded, spread across the field, one green eye missing, the other dim and failing.

Jane lost.

In the aftermath, Jake grinned, and gave Jane a pat on the back. “Maybe next time, old sport!” he said, before going to congratulate his boyfriend. Their hands touched before they walked off, and I watched Jane as she stared after them.

Jane had come a long way to fighting for what she wanted. Her dream must have seemed so close that she could hardly have failed to grasp it. She didn’t realize that it was already behind her, somewhere back in the vast obscurity beyond the pesterlogs of the past. Jane believed in those two green lights, a future that day by day receded before her. It eluded her then, and it eludes her now.

Sometimes, Jane tries to tinker with her robot. She looks things up on the internet, and tries to learn how to build it into something bigger and better. Tomorrow, she’ll worker harder, build it up some more, stretch out her arms further. She thinks about that moment, that one moment where she could have objected, could have changed everything -

And so she beats on, a boat against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

 


End file.
